I would come,
We could have look around,
give the guys chance to meet us lot and give us a discount card.
Maybe see some of there engine rebuilds.
How about a BBQ, ?
We could bring our own meat and cans of .......
After all the summer is coming.

Ed - sounds great. I'm up for bringing some meat, a few tinnys and a bottle of lemonade

While you're here - a bit of advice please

I've got a torn boot on the O/S/F driveshaft, not the outer boot (CV joint) but the other one, the one thats almost underneath the engine. Is it just covering the sliding part of the driveshaft, so it can adjust its length for when the wheel moves up and down? Do you know if this is an MOT failure or not and what sort of a job it is to change it? Would you dismantle the suspension and take out the driveshaft with the hub attached, or dismantle the hub/wheel bearing assembly and leave as much of the suspension alone as possible? Just thought I'd get a professional opinion first, may end up farming the job out as its not one I fancy tackling myself, I don't know if I'd dare mess around with the transmission..

Ed - sounds great. I'm up for bringing some meat, a few tinnys and a bottle of lemonade

While you're here - a bit of advice please

I've got a torn boot on the O/S/F driveshaft, not the outer boot (CV joint) but the other one, the one thats almost underneath the engine. Is it just covering the sliding part of the driveshaft, so it can adjust its length for when the wheel moves up and down? Do you know if this is an MOT failure or not and what sort of a job it is to change it? Would you dismantle the suspension and take out the driveshaft with the hub attached, or dismantle the hub/wheel bearing assembly and leave as much of the suspension alone as possible? Just thought I'd get a professional opinion first, may end up farming the job out as its not one I fancy tackling myself, I don't know if I'd dare mess around with the transmission..

As far as I'm aware (bearing in mind I'm not an MOT tester) any kind of split leak or tear on a CV boot inner or outer is an MOT fail. Not a massive job to change though and parts are cheap.

You would need to remove the 6 bolts from the output shaft to the inside of the driveshaft (you should only need a 6mm allen attachment to do this although they will be TIGHT!), remove the top bolt where the hub mounts to the strut and slacken the bottom one (not all the way). Pull the hub back to move the driveshaft away. You would then need to prize off the back cover off the CV joint housing to get to the circlip that holds the shaft into the CV joint. The joint should then slide off and you can replace the boot. Doing the same steps in reverse should see it all back together.

Depending on how handy you are, what tools you have, and how awkward your car decides to be it shouldn't take more than a few hours to do.

I would come,
We could have look around,
give the guys chance to meet us lot and give us a discount card.
Maybe see some of there engine rebuilds.
How about a BBQ, ?
We could bring our own meat and cans of .......
After all the summer is coming.

EDIT
Just read Eds above post. done while i was typing

Hopefully you won't see any of our engine rebuilds, we're yet to have one come back. If you really wanted to we could build something up whilst you're there but it'll be boring to watch, we could at least talk anyone who's interested through the process and maybe give a few demos?

I have a pit in the garage and most tools, plus a retired RAF motor engineer (grandad ) who helps out massively with the engineering side of things, mostly freeing up stuff thats seized and talking me through the jobs.. That being said, what would you quote to do the job? As I've got rear shocks and springs to replace, front brakes to replace, oil cooler to fit, a knocking from the front suspension or top-mount to investigate and the underside to clean up, paint and re-underseal. Then a general inspection as MOT is due in a few months. Thats going to satisfy my tinkering urges for a long time!

Regarding demos, I'd certainly be interested in seeing what you do, or at least a talk through of the process.. See what everyone else thinks as well though, I might be the only one interested. Anyway, I'm more than happy just to have a socialise and a bit of grub

I have a pit in the garage and most tools, plus a retired RAF motor engineer (grandad ) who helps out massively with the engineering side of things, mostly freeing up stuff thats seized and talking me through the jobs.. That being said, what would you quote to do the job? As I've got rear shocks and springs to replace, front brakes to replace, oil cooler to fit, a knocking from the front suspension or top-mount to investigate and the underside to clean up, paint and re-underseal. Then a general inspection as MOT is due in a few months. Thats going to satisfy my tinkering urges for a long time!

Regarding demos, I'd certainly be interested in seeing what you do, or at least a talk through of the process.. See what everyone else thinks as well though, I might be the only one interested. Anyway, I'm more than happy just to have a socialise and a bit of grub

It would probably be quicker and easier to replace the shaft as a whole unit, we have several second hand ones here. We could do the job for £100 including the shaft. I was in GTV mode with my explaination before, there is only 1 bolt to remove on the 156, the one that goes to the top wishbone, sorry.

It would probably be quicker and easier to replace the shaft as a whole unit, we have several second hand ones here. We could do the job for £100 including the shaft. I was in GTV mode with my explaination before, there is only 1 bolt to remove on the 156, the one that goes to the top wishbone, sorry.

Sounds good, I think I'll take you up on that

About replacing the shaft, do you mean the whole thing from the back of the hub to the gearbox?